Hard at work on his new album, the just-released A Color Map of the Sun, Pretty Lights initially turned down the offer to contribute to Verve's latest compilation, which remixes Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. That is, until Nina Simone came into the picture.

"They came back to me and were like, 'Well, we've been hanging on to this one song and we really think it fits your style," says Derek Vincent Smith, aka Pretty Lights. "I was like, 'Oh, that's on the list?' I was so immediately energized by the project that I was like, 'Yes, I have time now.' "

That song, Nina Simone's I Put A Spell On You, is one of 13 classic jazz tunes featured on Verve Remixed: The First Ladies, mixed by some of the biggest names in electronic dance music, including Bassnectar, Zeds Dead and Kaskade.

A self-described "massive" fan of the late High Priestess of Soul, Smith says some of her most memorable tunes include Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (which he previously sampled on his track Understand Me). With a catalog as diverse as hers, though, he's hard-pressed to pick a favorite.

"The thing with Nina is that every song I listen to of hers is mind-blowing," Smith says. "They all manage to hit me in that same place, whether it's about women's rights or love or love gone bad or politics. She's one of those rare, rare artists that are able to do that."

Verve Remixed: The First Ladies is now streaming on USA TODAY, ahead of its July 9 iTunes release. Physical product follows July 16.